Half-Blooded Romance
by pixxieedust
Summary: When Muggle Josie accidentally stumbles on Charlie's dragon sanctuary, Josie invites Charlie into her life. Charlie, on the other hand, struggles with his decision to introduce her into the wizarding world. But soon, they both learn that each world has definite benefits, and maybe they can make it work.
1. meet cute

The sun began to rise as Josie quickly double-knotted her old Timberlands. Although Josie promised to meet Peter at the museum about five minutes ago, Josie would not let a missed alarm mean gulping down a cup of tea. So, she took her time, and Peter would learn to wait. As she found her way through Baia Mare, she worried that Peter might not take kindly to her being late. While in general, Romanians were more laidback and often late (an idea she could get behind), Peter was an American, and he might be a stickler for a time table.

As Josie burst into the employee entrance of the county museum, Ioana, her new boss, called her over. Josie loved the museum so far and to be interning in Romania was a dream come true, but she hoped that Ioana would not put her to work.

Instead Ioana handed her a note and said, "Peter left you this. Sabina can drive you since it's slightly too far to walk."

Sabina was Ioana's daughter, and for the past two weeks, Josie tried to become friends with her. Hoping to finally kick off the friendship and in desperate need of a ride, Josie asked, "Thank you! Where can I find her?"

"She should be outside in the parking lot."

"La revedere!" Josie called and sped out of the museum. She concluded that Peter did not like being held up, and she would encourage Sabina to step on it. Josie had been in Romania for about two weeks now, and Peter was the first person to invite her to do something. She was eager to go hiking and hoped that this little mishap would not ruin the potential friendship.

"Hey Sabina, do you mind driving me to this address?" Josie asked as politely as possible and held out the note for Sabina to see.

"You and Peter are hanging out?"

"We had plans, and I'm a little bit late. Please help me out? I'll owe you one."

"Yeah, okay, I'll take you," Sabina agreed and took the note, "Are you sure this is the right address?"

"I hope so," Josie admitted before hoping into the car.

—

As the sun rose, Charlie realized that he had been out all night trying to calm one of the peskier dragons down. Finally, she fell asleep and Charlie was free to get a night's (or day's sleep) himself. He snuck into the break room in one of the cabins to grab some food before he went to his own cabin to get a couple hours of sleep. If his boss saw Charlie, he would likely put Charlie on another dragon, and it would all day before Charlie got a break.

"How was the new girl?" Clem asked. Clem was easily Charlie's best friend, other than his older brother Bill.

"Exhausting," Charlie admitted, "I'm going to try to sneak in a couple hours of sleep before I come back out. Don't let the boss know, will ya?"

"Don't worry, he's up in the capital trying to sort out a sighting issue or something."

"If I didn't need the sleep; I would definitely beat you in sanctuary olympics." Charlie mimicked swinging a bat to add to the effect.

"I'll win 'Dragon Dung Toss' one of these days, Charlie."

"Stick to 'wand —"

Daniel, another Dragonologist, stepped into the break room, "Hey, there's a muggle near the south edge. Charlie, you mind taking care of her?"

"I was going to head to bed, but I can run down there before I head back to the cabin."

"Thanks, Charlie," Daniel said as he sat down with a cup of coffee.

Charlie walked down to the south gate. With his still-limited knowledge of Romanian and his growing exhaustion, he hoped that the wandering muggle wouldn't mind harsh, awkward Romanian.

Charlie saw Josie before she saw him. She had just reached the gate and realized that Peter was not here, and Sabina had driven off back toward the museum. Anxiety set in as she realized she was completely alone - she had no idea where she was, had no idea where the next town is, and cannot speak more than twelve phrases of Romanian.

Josie started pacing and finally noticed Charlie from the corner of her eye.

"Salut," _Hello, _Josie called out.

"Bună dimineața. Duceț-vă de aici! La revedere." _Good Morning. Go away! Goodbye, _Charlie responded. He knew that he sounded rude and awkward when he spoke, but the faster Charlie could get this woman to leave, the better.

"Nu vorbesc bine românește. Vorbiți engleză?" _I can't speak Romanian well. Do you speak English? _

"I do. I'm sorry but this is private property, and I need to ask you to leave." Charlie responded, hopefully sounding more polite than his broken Romanian.

"I will - I just don't know where to go," Josie knew that sounded pathetic - but she might not see another person for a few hours, and she wanted all the help she could get.

"There's a village about three or four kilometers away. You should be able to catch a bus or train to where you came from," Charlie offered, "I can walk you there if you want." Charlie shocked himself by offering to walk eight kilometers instead of going back to bed.

"That would be great!"

Charlie stepped out of the gate and started walking with Josie, introducing himself. As they walked to the village, Josie told Charlie all about her work at the museum, about eventually making a friend, and then finally meeting at the wrong location.

Charlie enjoyed listening to her; her excitement about her work reminded him of his excitement about working with dragons. He, however, shared very little - afraid that he might accidentally expose himself as a wizard.

By the time they got to the village, Charlie wouldn't let her go back to Baia-Mare alone. So she bought two bus tickets, and they hoped on the bus. Charlie questioned if he would be helpful in any actual situation - having very little muggle-society experience, but he felt good about being able to help Josie.

"Charlie, I don't have many friends in Romania right now, and I was hoping that maybe I could get your number so that we could hang out sometime." Josie asked, somehow confidently and nervously at the same time.

Charlie didn't have a phone, but he definitely would like to hang out with Josie again, "If you give me yours, I'll call you when I get back."

Josie deflated, "If you don't want to hang out, you don't have to come up with an excuse."

Charlie felt bad, "No, no, I definitely do. I just … don't have my number memorized?" Charlie hoped that would be an appropriate excuse.

"Oh, did you get a new phone?"

"Yeah," Charlie nodded, and very grateful that she bought his excuse.

Josie wrote her number on a piece of paper and handed it to Charlie. When the bus stopped in Baia-Mare, Charlie and Josie stepped off the bus.

"I know you didn't bring your wallet, so I'll buy you a ticket back," Josie offered.

"Thanks, I'll pay you back when we hang out next." Charlie made a mental list to get some sickles exchanged.

Josie gave Charlie a quick hug, thanked him for bringing her back safely, and said goodbye as she left the bus station.

Before Charlie got back on the bus to the dragon sanctuary, he ran into a nearby store and bought a phone.

* * *

**author's note: just an idea that came to my head - probably will be about 15 chapters - hopefully, uploading about a chapter per week.**

**\- dana**


	2. muggle museums & wizard pickup lines

Charlie went down to Baia Mare to visit Josie once again. Today, she promised him a private tour of the museum. He wasn't sure how he felt about it because he had never been to a muggle museum before, but she seemed very excited to show him. Therefore, he was eager to visit.

Charlie and Josie had been chatting on the phone for a little over two weeks now, and they would meet at little cafés throughout the city or in towns between the city and the reserve. She had not come back to the reserve since the day they meet, and if Charlie did a sufficient job at hiding his magic, she had no idea that he was a wizard.

When Charlie got out of the bus at the station, Josie was already there to meet him. She waved largely, excited to see him.

Josie's challenge to make friends had only just barely succeeded. Peter was upset when he thought that Josie stood him up on their hiking trip. When Josie tried to explain that he gave her the wrong address, he wouldn't admit to it, although he seemed less upset about the situation. Nevertheless, he did not invite her to go hiking again, but they grabbed lunch together on a shift once; the friendship was not the "kindred spirit" she had been hoping to find. Sabina was not eager to be her friend either, but now that they shared an apartment, the friendship grew a little.

On the other hand, Josie thought Charlie was amazing. He listened intently, provided meaning feedback, and told interesting stories – although, he usually skipped important parts or cut off the story too quickly as if he promised to keep them a secret and just now remembered. She thought that was strange, but she soon accepted it as a slightly weird idiocrasy of Charlie and no longer minded it all that much.

Charlie went over to where Josie stood and asked, "Do you want to grab coffee or tea before the tour?"

Josie remarked, "Oh, you can't bring drinks into the museum," as if this rule only at this one museum. Charlie, however, suspected that this was a general rule for museums, but was glad that Josie didn't react as if it was common knowledge.

Charlie and Josie chatted on the way to the museum. Charlie began a story about his niece, Victoire, but when he realized the story involved her getting a hold of Bill's wand and causing a little magical mischief, the story became a lot less interesting, "… oh, I don't think I remember how it ends." Instead, he changed the subject to asking her what exhibits the museum featured.

Charlie's goal for the day was to ask Josie on a proper date. There were two problems that stood in the way.

Firstly, Charlie was nervous about dating a muggle. Josie, somehow, made him think it was worth it. She was lively, fun to be around, interested in her own passions, and intrigued to hear about Charlie's. Charlie often struggled to keep dragons out of the conversation. He figured if they were dating, he would eventually tell him and if they ever broke up, he would likely be upset enough to perform a memory charm or ask someone else to do it for him.

Secondly, Charlie was terrible at flirting. He asked Bill about it, and Bill recommended just asking her out – plain, direct, and simple. Wanting a second opinion, Charlie also risked asking George. George offered him some products from the store, sang about Charlie finally getting a girlfriend for about four minutes, and wrote a list of awful pickup lines all of which were wizard related and could not work with Josie anyway. So, Charlie decided to talk Bill's advice and just ask her out.

As Josie, who was enraptured in her presentation, showed Charlie around the museum, the stupid pickup lines kept popping in his head.

_My Amortentia smells just like you._

Charlie asked a question about one of the artifacts he showed her to push George's voice out of his head.

Josie answered his questions excitedly and talked for almost 10 minutes about a vase.

_My Divination professor never told me I would meet someone as beautiful as you._

_Merlin's beard, George. _Charlie was getting distracted by his overwhelming desire to ask Josie on a date and his growing annoyance towards George and his pickup lines.

_I could make you scream louder than a mandrake._

Charlie had enough of George's voice in his head. Before Josie went to the next artifact, Charlie rang out, "Josie, would you like to go on a proper date with me?"

Josie turned around, a little stunned, and answered, "Yes, okay." She smiled – not sure what to do next. She never expected Charlie to like her although she did find herself with a little crush on Charlie. But she would never admit it and would simply attribute it to having her first friend in Romania.

Josie finished showing Charlie around the museum, only a little dazed. Charlie was glad to have followed Bill's advice. With George safely outside of Charlie's head, Charlie could concentrate on Josie's presentation, laughing to himself when she tried to explain away a magical object.

* * *

**author's note: a second chapter for y'all. hope everyone enjoys!**


	3. first date

Charlie did not date often; his last serious girlfriend had been at Hogwarts, and with so few female co-workers, his current dating pool was quite small. Josie was in a similar boat – she had a boyfriend or two at uni, but never anything serious.

Charlie had a bit of a difficult time figuring out what to do on the date. Back at Hogwarts, he would have taken her out to Hogsmeade or snuck into the Forbidden Forest. A Quidditch game was obviously out of the question, but he could go for the classic drink at a pub.

Then he considered whether or not Josie would actually like a date at a pub and figured that it may not work either. In the end, he decided to text her.

_Would a pub be too chill?_

Charlie had significantly improved at the idea of texting. His first text took about two and half hours to write and send; he was able to send this is about three minutes. Most of that time was used finding the question mark.

Josie responded, _I've been hearing about this restaurant. It's about time I eat authentic Romanian. Is dinner too much?_

_Not at all. Mind a little sightseeing? We could finally visit Stephens tower._

_I'd love too!_

Charlie and Josie finalized their plans – they would visit St. Stephen's tower and then head to an early dinner.

"So, what exactly goes on at the reserve?" Josie asked Charlie. She knew very little about his work and was interested in knowing more.

Charlie grunted as he finally reached the top of the tower, "Oh it's a sanctuary for drag-" he coughed and attempted to cover his slip, "endangered species." It wasn't necessarily a lie, dragons were rather endangered, but he still felt guilty about not telling Josie.

Josie looked at Charlie questioningly, "Did you almost say –," Josie decided not to finish her question because she thought that Charlie would think she was bizarre. "That must be really rewarding work." She moved on awkwardly

"Yeah, I absolutely love it."

"You should talk about it more; I feel like I do most of the talking," Josie laughed.

"I love listening to you." Charlie attempted to wink.

"Oh, come on Weasley, you're not that smooth."

Charlie laughed and stared out of the tower. He thought about telling Josie right then. About the dragons, about why he usually wore long sleeve shirts to hide his burned arm even though it was summer, about his family, his history, and who he was. But then another voice in his head said,"No." The more he got to know Josie, the more he realized that he could never perform a memory charm if that meant she would forget him.

Josie joined him at the opening, and her breath caught at the bird's eye view of Baia Mare. She thought about her time in Romania so far and how much she had to look forward to. She glanced over to Charlie and watched his highly freckled face. He had been her savior one month ago, and now he was her closest friend in Romania.

He glanced over at her, and she blushed and looked down. Almost by accident, she saw the time on her watch.

"We should probably head back down if we want to make our reservation."

Charlie didn't seem to comprehend what she was saying. He had taken a few steps towards Josie and looked down slightly to meet her eyes.

Charlie blushed and stumbled, "Can I kiss you right now?"

"Yeah," Josie breathed.

In almost an instant, Charlie kissed her. It was slow and nervous at first, but as the pair became more comfortable, the kiss grew more confident.

In another moment, it ended. Josie once again repeated, "We should probably head down."

"Yeah."

Josie felt dazed through the rest of the date, and after another kiss at the door to her apartment building, she floated upstairs, walked into her apartment, and knocked on Sabina's door.

"Charlie kissed me."

Sabina, who usually tried to ignore Josie, opened her door. "He what?"

"Kissed me." Josie plopped on the sofa and placed a pillow in her lap.

Sabina, not one to avoid gossip, jumped on the couch, "Tell me everything."

Clem was in the kitchen of the cabin when Charlie walked in, "How was the muggle?" Clem had yet to remember Josie's name.

"I kissed her." Charlie admitted, before turning towards his bedroom.

"You what?" Clem asked as he grabbed two glasses and a bottle of firewhiskey.

"Kissed her." Charlie sat on one of the chairs in the kitchen.

Clem sat across from Charlie and poured two glasses, "Drink up."

After Clem went to bed, Charlie began writing a letter to Bill. It was finally time that he told Bill all about Josie.

_Hey Bill,_

_I've been meaning to write you for a little while now. I hope everything is going well with the wife and kids._

_I'll just come out and say this: Josie, the girl I told you about, is a muggle. I didn't really think it would go anywhere, but I'm starting to really like her. I'm lost about where to go next._

_I know that you don't have too much experience with muggles, but if you have any advice …_

_Like how am I going to introduce her to mum!?_

_Talk to you soon,_

_Charlie_

Charlie stepped outside to find an owl who would take the letter to Bill. The fresh air was a welcome effect after the firewhiskey. When he got near to the break room, Pheidippides swooped down, and Charlie attached the letter to his foot.

* * *

**another chapter up - hope everyone enjoys**


	4. scrunchies & earl grey tea

After their first date, Charlie spent most of his days off at Josie's flat in the city. Whether they walked around the city, cooked meals together, watched television or played boardgames, they seemed like the average non-wizarding couple.

In fact, Josie had introduced him to a lot of new products that weren't popular in the wizarding world. The muggle world relied on a lot more on trends than the wizarding world did, but there were definitely a few trends that Charlie felt would improve the wizarding world immensely – most importantly scrunchies.

Josie's long brown hair was almost always up in some variously colored scrunchie. After Charlie borrowed one to throw his hair into a quick bun to make dinner, Charlie had made the very important switch from a simple black elastic to these colorful scrunchies.

Charlie even tried to get some of his friends to wear them, but they declined and usually laughed at him.

Josie called out from the bedroom, "Charlie, where did all my green scrunchies go?"

Charlie froze. He mostly stole the green scrunchies from Josie because he felt that they complemented his red hair. And more than once, they somehow got destroyed at the reservation.

A few loose flames burned some of them, George found one when he was visiting and charmed it to make it get tighter and tighter throughout the day, one fell victim to 'Dragon Dung Toss,' and various other shenanigans or work-related incidents claimed more.

Charlie could tell Josie what really happened to all those scrunchies, but after a few months of knowing Josie, he still had yet to reveal that he was a wizard who worked with dragons.

Charlie, instead, put a kettle on the stove and started making tea. He answered back, "I keep losing them."

Josie came out of her room, now wearing an orange scrunchie, "Well, steal some other colors every once in a while," she said with a smile.

Charlie stared at the kettle. Josie came over a kissed him on the cheek, then she went to the cupboard to grab mugs.

Josie asked Charlie, "Bags or loose leaf?" She opened another cabinet, "Never mind, we only have bags."

Charlie made a firm resolution to pour the tea, sit down with Josie, and tell her. He began, "Hey, I need to talk…"

Sabine entered the apartment, exhausted from work. "Hey Charlie, Josie. How's the day going?"

Josie pouted, "Charlie stole all my green scrunchies." She plopped down on a chair in the living room.

Charlie called from the kitchen, "Hey, I'm making tea to make up for it."

Sabine sighed, "How can _you_ meet a guy within two weeks of living here, and I've lived here my whole life?"

Josie smiled encouragingly, "Maybe Charlie can set you up with someone he works with."

Charlie choked a little as he walked into the room trying to balance three hot mugs of tea. He set the cups down, recovered, and said awkwardly, "The guys there are pretty … uh … dull … uh … that's why I'm here so much."

* * *

Charlie left later that night upset that he never told Josie. He would have to do it sometime or another. The longer he waited the more he felt like he was betraying her.

When Charlie got back to the reservation, there was a letter from Bill waiting on the table.

_Hey Charlie,_

_I hope everything is going well with Josie. You should probably tell her soon. Mum asked about "Charlie's new girlfriend" last week when we went to visit. I told her enough to satisfy her need for information but didn't mention she was a muggle. Fleur said that she would help Josie adapt to the Weasley family when the time came, but for now Fleur is learning to adapt to morning sickness._

_That might have been a weird way to announce it, but Fleur is pregnant again! Victoire is excited, but I'm sure she will be jealous when the baby arrives. Please come and visit soon, I promise that I won't tell Mum you came to visit us but didn't go to the burrow._

_It's a win-win situation, as they say!_

_With love,_

_Bill_

Charlie had been meaning to go to the Shell Cottage for a while now, but never really made the time for it. He had two days off this weekend, a rare occurrence. He wrote to Bill asking if he could come on such short notice; Charlie needed Bill's help, and likely Fleur's, on how to get through this situation with as little consequence as possible.

* * *

As Josie was getting ready to go to bed, she remembered that Charlie mentioned that he needed to talk before Sabine came in.

She didn't know if it was anything important, but she would ask him the next time she saw him.

For now, she would have to find how where in Romania she can replenish her shrinking supply of scrunchies and earl grey tea.

* * *

**author's note:**

**I want to thank everyone that followed, favorited and commented on the chapters so far. This was just an idea that came to my head, and I've been trying to get over the "fear of creative writing." It's been a really good opportunity for me to stay committed to something, and I am surprising myself at being so consistent with the uploads.**

**On that note, I head back to school this week and my uploads might be a little less frequent, but I am really going to try to keep to my schedule.**

**Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy!**


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